The Slayer of Aridious Prime
by TimJnz
Summary: The TARDIS lands in SUNNYDALE on the day its destroyed and the lives of Buffy and the Doctor become intertwined. This is essentially a coming of age story for Dawn, having her deal with the good and the bad of coming of age and certain feelings that arise
1. Chapter 1

BUFFY the Vampire Slayer/DOCTOR WHO The Slayer of Aridious Prime By Timothy E. Jones

Prologue "The End"

Author's note: This story takes place after BTVS: "Chosen" & Dr. Who: "The Age of Steel"

The TARDIS whined and groaned as it spun through the corridors of time and space, that weaved from the extreme dawn of time, from before the time of man…from before the time of the Earth time was there, to the ultimate end of time itself. Mankind likes to think that time began when they came into existence, and it will end with their final departure, whenever that would be. But that is only true from a certain perspective.  
There are a million billion planets out there that lived out their lifespan long before Earth even came into existence, and there will be a even more planets that will come into existence long after Earth will breathe her last breath. And while each of these planets may perceive time in their own manner, one thing is true; it all flows together from one point to another.  
But while most people see time as a flowing constant, for one man time isn't quite as fluid, he's seen things definitively happen, only to have it change with the alteration of some event in the past. He takes these fluctuations in historical events into consideration as he moves about in the 5th dimension.  
He is known by many names to many people, but there is one name that he prefers over all others; one that was given to him quite by accident by an early companion, yet it was the one that had seemed to have stuck. The name sort of described who he was, rather than what he was. Since then he had become the subject of prophecies, curses, salvations and destructions. He is simply known as: The Doctor.

At present he was in his 10th incarnation, with the appearance of a 30 something male with dark hair brown eyes and a sort of an impish charm. Rose his blonde haired, blue eyed barely out of her teens companion that most referred to as his girlfriend (which was more of an accurate description than he liked to admit at times) seemed to like this incarnation a lot over his previous incarnation. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive in his own right in his previous incarnation; it just seemed as if this was more palatable to the eyes to most people.  
He spun at the dials and flipped at the switches as the TARDIS had a rough time of this particular journey. It was almost as if the TARDIS herself didn't want to land as if she were saying; sorry, not here, not this time, not this place.  
"Come on," The Doctor yelled out, he picked up a rubber mallet and bopped the side of the console with it, "materialize, you stupid idiot!" He was glad that Rose was standing in the background watching his actions silently for once, because right this very second wasn't the best time for small talk, flirtations or questions, even though the questions may have been the right ones to ask, and her gentle flirtations would have settled his nerves.

The TARDIS sputtered, almost as if feelings were hurt.

"I'm sorry," he caressed the console, "but you know when you get temperamental, I get the same way, I just wish you could tell me what the problem is."

Rose did in fact watch on, letting out a gentle smirk at the antics of the Doctor, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Well, most of the time anyway. She took a look at several wires that had come loose on the bottom of the console. "I'll tell you what the problem is."

"Be quiet, please, Rose,"

"But…" she stepped forward and placed her hand on the console, she leaned down and took too pieces of wire that had been separated, "I think if we were to fix these wires…"

"Rose, don't…" the Doctor protested as he helplessly watched Rose touch the two wires together.

There was a mild spark, and almost immediately, and with a sputter of protest, the TARDIS let out her distinct groans of materialization, and the Doctor smiled sheepishly, "I…was…going to try to see if that…was the problem…eventually."

"Uh-huh," Rose smiled coyly, "of course you were."

"I was," he smiled, "as soon as I would have noticed it." He scratched his head. "Where'd you learn that trick anyways?"

"Mickey. He worked with cars…sometimes."

"Worked with them, or stole them?"

"Worked with them," Rose said, as her smile quickly turned into a frown, "god, it seems strange talking about him in the past tense,"

The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder, "he's not dead, you know, just elected to stay in the alternate dimension to fight Cybermen,"

"Yeah, but it still means I'll never see him again," she placed her head on the Doctor's shoulder.

"It's what he wanted, besides I think he's found something that's given his life meaning,"

"I gave him meaning," Rose looked up into the Doctor's eyes.

"Yes, probably at one time, but you do have to admit, from his perspective, you were away for months and sometimes even years."

"I guess you're right, just you and me, then, right?" Rose asked. "It is just you and me, right? No other past girlfriends going to show up?"

"I hope not," the Doctor said.

"No more Sarah Jane Smith? No more Princess Amoramudura?"

"No, besides," the Doctor smiled, "they're all P.R.,"

"P.R.?" Rose inquired.

"Pre Rose."

"Oh," she smiled, "although, you know, though I would have liked to see Sarah when she was in her prime,"

"Hey, don't count her out; she still has a lot of good years left in her,"

"I don't mean it that way, and you know it," she wanted to change the subject and rather quickly, she seemed to have picked out a sensitive subject by bringing up Sarah Jane again. "So, when are we?"

The Doctor looked at the time monitor, "May 10, 2003, 2:55 pm."

"Why does that date seem familiar to me?"

The Doctor mused. "Birthday of someone you know?"

"No, nothing like that," she shrugged.

"Well," the Doctor suggested, "why don't we go out and take a look around, maybe you'll see something that will jog your memory."

"Ok," she pushed the lever that opened the doors, and followed the Doctor out, he always seemed to want to pop his head out first, and it was like it was some sort of an unwritten rule.

"Wow, a nice town, southern California I think,"

"An area famous for its…," all at once, as if on cue, the ground began to shake, "earthquakes!"

The Doctor looked around, and then he saw it, the sign. It was a simple, harmless sign giving the name of a modern school: Sunnydale High School. "Sunnydale, California…May 10, 2003."

"I remember, at 2:56, the town was swallowed by an earthquake,"

"Rose, it wasn't an earthquake, all Hell broke loose, and I mean that in the literal sense."

"Doctor, whichever way," she looked at her watch, it read 2:56, she looked up to see a cute blonde only a few years older than her all tarnished with bloodstains racing out the door and leap onto a building with almost superhuman strength.

"Rose, get in the TARDIS NOW!" He pulled her into the Police Box frame of the TARDIS.

"What about the girl?" Rose looked back; it was unlike the Doctor to not help somebody who was in dire straits, but maybe he knew something she did not. He always did, or at least tried to make her think it was that way.

"Can't stop to worry about her right now," the doors shut and the dematerialization process began, but the ground was ripped out from underneath them before dematerialization was complete, and the TARDIS began to tumble into the crater that was beginning to take form.

Buffy looked back curiously at the two people who stood to the side of the school just moments before, except for those she immediately needed for her final battle in Sunnydale, she thought she had evacuated everybody to a safe distance away from the town, but she also knew that evacuations were a tricky thing, there would always be people who would be left behind. A brief pang went through her heart for them, but where they once stood no longer existed, so there was no chance of even going back for them. She leaped across Main Street from 100 feet above.

Calculations ran through her head, the school bus on which Dawn, Giles and the other Slayers were only was only mildly a safe distance ahead of the growing crater in the earth, and she was running parallel to the bus. She glanced behind; the buildings were beginning to fold in on themselves like the town was built like a precariously built town of cards. She had no time to screw this up, if she missed her target, which was the roof of the bus, then she would have no time to recover, and like the man and the girl who stood outside the Police Box she too would be swallowed into the earth below.

Dawn Summers was scared. A few short years ago she had lost her mother, a shadow on her brain had caused complications, thanks to a miracle of modern science…or hell, just a miracle the shadow was gone, and she had begun to think that her mother would be able to live out the rest of her life normally, going on about how she survived brain cancer. Hell, she even had a few suitors, even on the day she died, there were flowers sent to her. But a future for her was not to be, she still died of an aneurysm or blood clot.

She lost friends to vampires and demons. She lost Tara to a stray bullet that was meant for Buffy. Technically Tara was Willow's girlfriend, but there was still times when she and Tara would wake up together cuddled on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them. In their short friendship, they had found a connection and a bond that even Willow couldn't take from them. She even lost Buffy to death for a while, but thanks to the otherworldly nature of her death and Willow's ability to resurrect the dead under certain conditions had brought Buffy back to her.

She didn't want to lose Buffy again, this time her death would be forever, no resurrection spells would be able to bring her back.

Her eyes scanned the outside of the bus as the theater came into view, then she looked up in the sky, Buffy was flying. Ok, technically she wasn't flying, more like making a flying leap and was attempting to swim her way through the air to get a few more inches. She gulped as she watched Buffy, and looked intently for more to follow her. She too had seen the man and the girl next to the Police Box, and she had hoped that they had found a way to at least attempt to follow Buffy.

Buffy landed with a thud and Dawn looked up with a faint smile, she reached out and touched her hand to the roof of the bus, the thin layers of metal and paint were the only things that separated them, as long as Robin didn't jerk the bus around, then Buffy would be OK. As the town disappeared behind them, she had given up all hopes of the man and the girl following them.

Faith watched and listened with a great intent. Her slightly heightened sense of hearing had made it possible for her to distinguish the rumblings of the bus, the groaning of the wounded slayers, many of which were wounded and had experienced a wound for the first time in their lives. But they were Slayers, each and every one of them, there was no more arguing over who was the true Slayer whether it was her or Buffy, and Slayers have an uncanny ability to bounce back in vivid crystal display color. She looked at one of the new Slayers, Chloe, a cute red headed girl who was around 18 who fought with a vengeance; she had received a knife wound to her cheek, and was looking at her scarred face in the reflection of the rear view mirror.

"You'll be OK," said Faith.

"I know," she said as she felt a strange warm energy come up from inside of her, "I can feel it healing over even as we speak."

Faith watched the scar almost glow with energy. "Wow babe, give it as few days, and you won't even know you had a deep cut to your face."

"Ya think?"

"Yeah," Faith heard the rumbling of the earth stop. "Ease off, we're clear," she said to Robin in a low tone. She wondered if his slayer abilities would begin to kick in. Certainly, he was a male, and all male, and traditionally the slayer ability went to a girl. But he was also the only known son of a slayer, and it was a known fact that certain codes were written into his DNA that could possibly turn him into some sort of a sub-slayer, complete with the healing power. And he needed it bad, while Chloe had only a minor wound; Robin was wounded bad; possibly to the point that it would be a mortal wound. Under the rules of the old order, even if he did have power, he would have been relegated to a watcher, but starting now, the old order was out the window.

As the bus came to a stop, Buffy could feel it jerk around underneath her, trying to roll her off, she continued to hold onto the only thing she could grab on too; the running lights along the back of the bus towards the top. She strained with every effort of her being to keep a hold of it. She was glad when the bus came to a rest, for the very second it came to a stop she leaped down from the roof of the bus and began to stare blindly. She was safe, so were Dawn, Willow, Chloe and all of the other new slayers.

She looked at the hole that was once Sunnydale, she then turned her head 180 wondering what lay on the road head of them. She knew there were several options; Cleveland, New Orleans, the Middle East. Hell, she figured that a lot of those creeps in that freaky terrorist cult had to have been demons.

Dawn thrust the back door to the bus open, leaped out and threw herself into Buffy's arms.

"Buffy, you're OK!" She said.

"Yeah," she said.

"Hey, did you see that man and girl?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded her head still on Dawn's shoulders, she didn't want to let her go, and she knew that Dawn didn't want to let go either, "there was nothing we could do for them."

"I know," Dawn said.

"I don't understand," said Giles as his eyes focused on the crater, "who did this?"

Buffy forced herself out of Dawn's arms, and moved the few feet towards Giles. "Spike," was her reply, as she moved away, it wasn't as if she were looking for someone to blame, but there was truth in what she said.

Faith looked at Robin, who was sitting uncomfortably in the driver's seat, with a stab wound that went straight through his gut, and out the back. "It's not bad, you just sit here, I'll just get someone to…" her eyes settled on Chloe, who was looking on in concern.

"Hey," Robin replied, as Faith uncomfortably froze in her tracks, his words came out with great effort and pain, "did we make it?"

Faith nodded. "Yeah, we made it, and we won."

Robin smiled. Then he could feel his life beginning to ebb away the last image he saw before he died was the sad look on Faith's face.

Faith looked on him for a minute. A part of her had wanted to scream, or find someone to scream at, but she mustered up all the power she could to not throw a fit. To throw the others into a panic right now would not be a pretty picture. So she took a few deep breaths and reached out to pull his eyelids shut.

Robin found himself walking down a long golden pathway. Where it lead, he wasn't sure, he was greeted by a familiar face, the face of a woman he hasn't seen since he was 8; it was the face of his mother.

"Robin,"

"Mamma?" He said. "Is that you?"

"Yes," she said, as she turned him around, "you can't come here,"

"But I died," he tried to look down the golden road to see what lie ahead, "isn't this the place people go to when the die?"

"Yes," she said, "it is, but it's not your time to be here, you are still needed down there."

"But I'm dead, right?"

"Go back, be with them…be with her," she pointed back to Faith, who was looking at the face of his dead body, "your time to be here will come, but for now you must go back."

Robin gasped for air, causing Faith to jump back. "Surprise!" He said after a few more gasps of air.

She smiled, as Chloe moved towards him with the medical kit, she looked at the girl and smiled, as she stepped off the bus. She spotted the core group gathering around the hole, and she moved towards them with a stroll. "It looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business!"

"There's another one in Cleveland," Giles looked at Buffy, knowing that his little comment would not settle well with them, "for the moment."

"We saved the world," Xander said. He slowly stepped back when he thought he saw something rush out of the crater at him, but with only one eye, his dept perception was still out of kilter. As soon as he realized nothing was going to come out of the crater, his stance steadied.

"No, we changed the world," Willow responded, "I can feel them Buffy, all over, and Slayers are awakening everywhere."

"We have to find them," Dawn responded, with tiredness in her voice.

"We will," Buffy said.

""Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale," Giles said, "so there's no use in going there tomorrow."

"We destroyed the mall?" Dawn asked, she knew that Giles' comment had not a whole lot to do with what Willow had actually said, but she still wanted to make a remark about it, "I fought on the wrong side."

Buffy let out only a slim smile of amusement.

"All those shops gone!" Xander said. "The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R' US, who will remember all those landmarks…unless we tell the world of them?"

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Giles nodded, sorry he brought up the subject of the mall.

"Can I push him in?" Faith inquired as she looked at Willow.

"You've got my vote," Willow responded.

Giles looked at her a bit surprised.

"I just want to sleep y'all for like a week." Faith said.

"I guess we all could," Dawn said, "if we wanted to,"

"Yeah," Willow agreed, "the First is scrunched, so…what do you think we should do Buffy?"

"Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen any more," Faith said, she knew she probably shouldn't have said that, but Buffy seemed to have let it go by, "you've got to live like a person, how's that feel?"

"Yeah Buffy," Dawn asked, "what are we going to do now?"

Buffy continued to look out at the crater, as a thin smile came to her face that gradually grew larger. She had a choice, for the first time in seven years; she had a choice where she didn't have to worry about parading around in the dark punching a whittled stick at shadows, not when there were others that could do it. A whole army of Slayers. Then she heard it, the loud ear piercing skree…skree…skree, her thoughts had turned to the source of the sound. It was a Tall Blue Police Box, the same Police Box that she saw moments ago outside the school; it was spinning out of control from the middle of the crater and towards them. "WE RUN!"

While everybody else got out of the way, Dawn made an attempt to run, but she tripped over a rock, she looked up to see the Police Box stop spinning and plummet down the dozen or so feet to the ground right where she lay.

"DAWN!" Buffy screamed out in horror, as she reached out to grab her, but it was too late, the Police Box had plopped itself down on Dawn like a hand on an insect.

TO BE CONTINUED… 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter ONE "Inside the TARDIS" 

The TARDIS had settled itself quite nicely after the bumpy ride, the Doctor found himself on the floor straddling Rose, which was not really such a bad position, when he thought about it, but also this was not the time for that. What it was the time for was to do a once over of the console to make sure that do permanent damage was done.

"You know," Rose commented, as he continued to lay on top of her, "I could rather get quite used to this!"

"I'm sure you could," replied the Doctor, "but…"

"HEY!" Came a voice from somewhere in the console room, but the Doctor couldn't place the position of where the voice was coming from.

"What?" Asked the Doctor, he got up off or Rose.

"The TARDIS speaks?" Rose asked as she too got to her feet. "When did she learn to do that?"

"Dunno, maybe when Mickey tried to help me fix something on the TARDIS he installed an Artificial Intelligence program," the Doctor shrugged, "maybe Mickey's not such an idiot after all!"

Rose could do nothing but glare at the Doctor. As much as he liked her, he had little tolerance for Mickey, maybe it was because Mickey never really fought to keep Rose in his life as much as his desires to keep her had indicated. Certainly, he had latched onto her at a young age, so she was always around. As a result, pursuing her to get her to become his girlfriend was not that big of a deal, but as soon as competition for her had set in, it had clearly upset him, but he could never figure out what to do about it.

"HEY GET ME OUT OF HERE!" this time the voice seemed to have a frustrated tone to it and was followed by a rattling sound.

"Who is me, and where is here?" the Doctor asked.

"Dawn Summers," was the reply, "I somehow got stuck under this stupid catwalk that you two are screwing around on!"

The Doctor stepped back and spun around so that he could get a good look at Dawn's face. "How on Earth did you get in there?" His voice betrayed a curious squeal.

"It must have happened when we did the emergency re-materialization," Rose responded, "we apparently materialized around you."

"Wow," the Doctor said, "only managed that once or twice before, but this is the first time somebody's gotten trapped under that catwalk. What were you doing, lying down?"

"I was attempting to run away from that crazy Police Box thingy, I tripped and fell, the Police Box was about to drop on me, and the next thing I know, I'm in here, wherever here is."

"Well, you're inside the TARDIS," Rose said, as she watched the Doctor pull the catwalk floor up, so that Dawn could get out, "quite literally,"

"Wow," Dawn looked at the décor of the TARDIS, "looks nice," she caught a glimpse of the doors, with the words POLICE BOX written backwards, "wait a sec…we're inside that crazy Police Box aren't we?"

"Actually, yes," the Doctor said.

"Wow!" She began to walk around. "Wait until Andrew gets a load of this place, he's into some of this trans-dimensional stuff," her eyes narrowed, "it is trans-dimensional, right?"

"Yes."

"How big is it? Are there other rooms," she found what looked like a doorway that leads deeper into the TARDIS, she went up to it and poked her head through the door, "these hallways must go on for miles!"

"Not quite," the Doctor said.

"Wow," Dawn said, "hey, maybe I should go tell Buffy I'm OK, before she starts to have an impromptu memorial service for me,"

"Dawn," Buffy said as she looked at the TARDIS, or more precisely the ground where the TARDIS landed, "of all of the times for you to have one of your comedicly clumsy spells,"

"She's gone, crushed by a Police Box," Xander said.

"Wait a second," said Giles, "I've seen this before."

"Of course," Buffy said, "your British, don't you like have them all around London or something?"

"Well they stopped using them when I was a kid, pretty much," Giles said, "but No. I mean, I have seen this particular Police Box before. But If I'm correct, then…well, what is he doing here."

"He?" Buffy asked. "He who?"

"The Doctor."

"Doctor…who?" Faith asked hopefully.

"Nobody knows his name, not really, trouble is I don't think even he does."

"Well this Doctor whoever he is better not come out of there, because when he does, I'm going to kill him for crushing my sister to death!"

"Oh no," Giles said, "If this is what I think she is, then she's not dead."

"You mean…?" Buffy began to pound on the door. "Hey in there, open up!"

All at once, the doors swung open and the Doctor popped his head out.

"Oh, hello," the Doctor smiled, "which one of you is Buffy?"

"That would be me," She responded, "and you better have my sister in there, and she'd better be OK, otherwise I'm going to set aside my rule of not harming human beings and kill you!"

"Buffy!" Dawn called out, as she threw herself into Buffy's arms, "I'm OK!"

"Dawn!" She wrapped her arms around Dawn. "You're OK!"

"Yes, Buffy,"

"I just love family reunions," the Doctor smiled, "don't you?"

"Yeah," Rose said, "but you need to start a family before that family reunion thing really works for you,"

"Hey Andrew," Dawn said, "you remember a few weeks ago you were going on about this strange Tran-dimensional theory you had."

"You mean the one where I could theoretically put the city of Los Angeles in your living room?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah."

"It was just a crazy theory,"

"It's not crazy, and it's not a theory," she pulled Andrew towards the TARDIS, "look!"

"Wow!" Andrew said, as he spun around in the TARDIS console room. "It's true!"

Buffy leaned in towards Giles, "is this the man you were expecting to see?"

"No, the man I was expecting to see was a bit of a dandy with white hair in his 50's."

"Could be his son," Faith said.

"Possibly," Giles said.

"After all how long ago did you see this guy?"

"It was in the '70, when I was still in my Ripper stage,"

"Ripper?" Rose asked with a laugh

"Ripper?" The Doctor asked. "That's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time."

Giles stepped forwards, "I dropped the Ripper name years ago,"

"My God," the Doctor said, as he moved around Giles, "it is you, tell me, are you still practicing black magic?"

"I don't practice too much any more,"

"He and a friend named…something Pain…"

"Ethan Rayne. We created that demon…" he caught the Doctor's look, "don't worry, most of them know about that shady part of my past."

"Yes, and I was still attached to U.N.I.T. at the time," he turned to Rose, "that was when they were still somewhat considered to be the good guys, under Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, anyway when he created the demon, U.N.I.T had me investigate," he looked at the crater, "still able to raise a little hell, I see,"

Giles shoved his hands in his pockets, "actually this is Buffy's doing."

"Actually, Spike,"

"Whatever."

"You talk as if you are the same man that I met, but you're not," Giles looked the Doctor over.

"Oh, but I am, it's a long story,"

"Maybe you can tell me how you do it, sometime."

Chloe stepped off the bus, and began to whisper into Faith's ear.

"Hey yo," Faith said, "so you're a Doctor or something, right?"

"They call me the Doctor, yes."

"So, we have some people on the bus that could use some doctoring," Faith said.

"I'm not that kind of a Doctor," the Doctor said, regrettably, "but it doesn't mean I don't know about first aid, if somebody needs it."

"OK, can you play ambulance with that thing or something, because we have some people on that bus who need some serious medical attention, and I don't think simple first aid is going to work."

"I'm not a taxi service," The Doctor protested.

Rose looked at him sternly, but silently.

"But I'll see what I can do," he quickly added.

Rose smiled, as they followed Faith to the bus, "Oh god!" She said as she took one look at Robin. She covered her mouth.

"Hey," Robin said, forcing his words out, "I'm not that bad looking!"

"He's…," Rose looked at the Doctor, "…he's…"

"Yes," the Doctor said slightly detached, he knew that if he were to let the reality of the situation set in, he would be looking for a place to spill his lunch, "he's got a wound that goes all the way through," he looked at Buffy, "what on Earth happened. I mean, I know all hell broke loose in the literal sense, but you guys must have put out one heck of a fight."

"It was a kill or be killed battle with an army of pure vampires,"

"Vampires?" Rose let out a laugh.

"Rose, after all you've seen, why is your initial reaction to laugh something off?" The Doctor inquired.

"I dunno, maybe it's because human thinking has relegated such things to myth, urban legends, and stuff of cheesy movies, which guys usually sit back and make fun of," she smiled, something she and Mickey used to do during a typical 60's horror movie marathon, but her smile quickly turned back to a look of concern, as her mind came back to the present. "Well, I think we'd better get this guy out of here and into the TARDIS,"

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, his eyes settled on Rona, the afro-American girl, "as well as her, and…" his eyes settled on Buffy.

"I'll be OK; I have that regeneration magic working overtime on me."

"Regeneration?" Rose asked as she leaned into the Doctor. "She can regenerate like you?"

"I don't know," the Doctor gave Buffy a close look over; he touched his hand to her.

"Hey, watch it with the touchy feely," Buffy was tempted to swat his hand away.

"It's OK,"

Buffy shrugged as she noticed his hand was on her belly, and not her breasts, "besides, they're further up,"

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he removed his hand, why were humans so preoccupied by sex especially when somebody seems to approach a sensitive area, was a mystery, "She has only one heart."

"Yeah," Buffy said, "I have one heart, I donated my extra one to science," she realized that the Doctor wasn't laughing, "you're being serious, aren't you?"

"Yes," the Doctor said,

Buffy looked at the Doctor, "who has two hearts? Raise your hand."

The Doctor did and then turned back to Rose, "while she has a heightened ability to regenerate, it's not like me where she can take on a new form. However, all life everywhere has the ability to regenerate to a certain point. When you scrape your knee for example, with proper care, the skin will grow back, which is a form of regeneration, and I think for her and the others who are like her, they have an extremely heightened version of that."

"Yeah, well that's well and good for me and B here," Faith said, "but could we please get my boyfriend to a hospital? Because if we don't soon, I'm going to get really pissed. And unlike Buffy, I don't get cute when I get pissed, if you know what I mean."

"Yes," the Doctor said, as he turned to Robin, "can you walk under your own power?"

"No," Robin replied, "I can't even move very much,"

"Ok," the Doctor took Robin in his arms, "let's go,"

"May I be of assistance?" Giles asked.

"Yes, actually, I think it would be best to use our arms to create a sort of a chair for him to sit in,"

"Right," the two worked together too gradually work Robin out of the driver's seat of the bus and outside, "you're not his son, are you? You're actually him?"

"In a different form, yes."

"But how, how can you regenerate in that manner?"

"It's a secret that is known to my people, and I'm afraid that when I die…I mean really die, that secret will die out with me."

"Why is that?"

"I'm the last of my people, a war between my people and a race of pure evil fought a battle to the death, in order to prevent this evil race from taking over the universe, I had to destroy my home world."

"Much like what we had to do with Sunnydale,"

"Yes,"

"Was it worth it? Sacrificing your people to destroy this evil race?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied, "actually the way I did it was quite brilliant, I utilized a piece of technology from my people's future to destroy the race in the past. It was a device that could take on any form I wanted it to, human, machine or whatever, it managed to get to the core of the planet and hyper accelerate the core, so that when the last ship from the alien armada reached orbit around the planet, it exploded. Only the TARDIS, the device and I survived. But the device got lost somewhere in the vortex of time and space."

"Are you looking for that device, or…?"

"I'm not looking for it, and if somebody were to come across it, they wouldn't even recognize it for what it was, and I'm sure even I wouldn't recognize it even if I were to accidentally stumble over it right this second."

At that moment, Dawn was helping Rona into the TARDIS and she bumped into the Doctor, causing him to stumble, but only slightly. "Oh, sorry."

"It's OK, accidents do happen," the Doctor smiled, as he and Giles paused long enough to let her take Rona into the TARDIS.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 02 "The Hiding Place" 

The mixture of the military and news convoy raced their way down the main highway, it was less than 10 minutes since the incident, already they were making their approach, and already theories and stories had been formulated. The Military had picked up a bogey, probably a UFO or missile.

Captain Haralson of the US Army had hoped that it was a missile that was launched over from the Middle East, just so that he could give some justification to this war that the President had sent them over to fight. This way he could say that New York City wasn't enough, the crash into the Pentagon building wasn't enough, flight 907 wasn't enough, and the attempts on the public transportation wasn't enough, that they had to play target practice with small towns along the western seaboard. Oh, he was going to put the words; "Remember Sunnydale" on the lips of every patriotic American.

For Clark K. Taylor of the Daily Star, this could be his big break; he was already there to cover a story about mysterious disappearances in the night, a runaway/kidnapping plot. A girl had disappeared in the middle of the night from her New England home, and was never seen or heard from again. It was by tracking down her credit card bills, he had found out that she had hitchhiked and hopped aboard a few busses. The credit card trail had ended in Sunnydale. He swore up and down that he would find her, his daughter, the girl he loved to no end.

But she wasn't the only girl whose trail had ended in Sunnydale, an afro American by the name of Rona, a cute, but sexually confused girl by the name of Kennedy, even his own daughter who he loved very much had fallen victim to this plot.

"I'll break this modeling scam wide open," he had said 11½ minutes ago.

"These freaks that are luring these girls to California with a promise of becoming models better have a lot of answers…and the right ones!" But exactly 1½ minutes later, his opinion about this being a modeling scam had flown out the window when he could feel the ground shake and the convoy of military trucks pushing their way past him less than a minute later.

"Chloe, honey, be ok," he prayed, "just turn around and come home with daddy, and all will be forgotten."

Chloe Taylor looked up to see the news truck following the military convoy, and right away she knew who was I n the truck. "No," she said softly, "hide me away hide me deep away, let him think I died…tell him anything," she clung onto Buffy, hiding her face from the man in the driver's seat in Buffy's chest, ""please!"

"Why? Who is he?" Buffy didn't do anything to stop her from attempting to crawl inside of her.

"He's my father,"

"Well, I'm sure your father will be elated to see you," the Doctor said, with a comforting smile, he tried to look Chloe in the eyes, but she hid them away.

"Well, I won't be,"

"But why?" Buffy asked.

"Maybe it's because of the pregnancy scare, or the…"

"I get the picture," Buffy's facial features hardened.

"Her own father?" The Doctor looked on in disgust. "Quick, go into the TARDIS; hide away in the corridors,"

"Dawn," Buffy looked up to see Dawn moving out of the TARDIS, "take Chloe deep into the TARDIS and get lost. I mean it."

"Don't worry, the TARDIS will allow us to find you when the time is right," the Doctor said, "as long as you don't wish to be seen, you won't be, especially if you go to the veiled room."

Rose looked at the Doctor and Buffy, "I know where it is, I stumbled across it one time when I was wandering through the corridors,"

"Ok," Buffy placed Chloe between Dawn and Rose, as they locked their body's together arm over each other's backs.

"Hey," Xander had stood apart from the group, but could hear every word that was being said, he was holding a crossbow, "I'm sure you know how to use this without causing crazy property damage by now!" Xander held the crossbow out for Dawn to take. The first time she had used the crossbow; she was playing target practice…in the house and had punched a hole in the wall. Of course, she tried to pull the shaft out of the wall, and ripped a hole about the size of a fist in the living room wall. However, since then, she had become proficient with a crossbow.

"Thanks," she held her hand out behind her as it went flying through the air, she did not even look at where she was reaching, but as soon as she felt the crossbow approach her hand, she wrapped her hand around it and kept on moving into the TARDIS.

Buffy smiled at her younger sister, as the doors closed behind her. No more would Dawn be considered as the kid sister, she was now 18, an adult, a perfectly normal and well-adjusted adult. Sure, according to the Powers That Be, she wasn't Slayer material, but maybe, just maybe there was a reason for then not picking her. She was passed over for a reason, a good reason; maybe she didn't need the extra Slayer advantage after all. She had her own abilities that were unique to her.

Clark C. Taylor leaped out of the van and immediately broke off into a run towards the first person she could get to. "Where is she?"

"Who is she?" Xander responded. "There are a lot of she's around here."

"She, Chloe, my daughter,"

"Oh, Chloe," Xander looked at the crater, "I'm sorry, I don't know if I remember seeing her after the destruction,"

"Hey," Buffy said, "whatever happed to what's the story here? You know...Why is there a crater where 10 minutes ago a town stood?"

"I want to see my daughter first,"

"She didn't make it," Buffy responded.

"Don't lie to me. I deal with liars and those who twist the truth around all the time,"

Buffy glare at Clark. "WHAT did you just call me?"

"A liar," Clark turned to Andrew, "maybe you can tell me where my daughter is?"

"I'm not sure," Andrew responded, as a twenty was placed in his hand, "but I think I did see her after the town went under," another twenty was placed in his hand, "I think," another twenty was placed in his hand, "Dawn and another girl hid her away…" he felt his throat compress, he looked up to see Willow standing there looking at him, her thumb and pointer finger were less than an inch apart, When did she learn that Darth Vader grip? he wondered, as he struggled at the invisible hand that was around his neck. "They're…urk…inside…the Police Box."

"Thank you," Clark said, as he turned towards the Police Box shell of the TARDIS, he rattled the door, but it wouldn't open.

Willow grabbed at Andrew's ear, for real; no magical grip was involved. "Why?"

"He was giving me money," his eyes fell on the handful of money, "and you know how many Star Wars toys I can replace with this?"

"That guy may be her father, but I seriously doubt it will be a happy family reunion when he finds her."

"Oh, I didn't know,"

Clark began to kick at the door. "How do you open this door? It's made out of wood, wood that should be rotten and weak, I should be able to kick this entire thing apart,"

The Doctor smiled, "I've had people fire at that thing with ultra compressed energy, lasers, beams, missiles, I don't think a simple foot will do the trick.

Clark spotted a jeep with a machine gun mounted on the top. He gripped his hands on the soldier and pulled him off, almost throwing him into the crater.

"HEY!" Came the response.

"I want my daughter!"

"She doesn't want you!" Buffy responded.

"Why?"

"Rape might have something to do with it,"

"It wasn't…maybe it was…"

"Drop the maybe," Buffy said.

"What are you talking about? Ok, fine, so she and I had a few encounters we shouldn't have, but..." He fired the gun at the TARDIS, it was a rapid fire, but the bullets only ricocheted off the TARDIS, causing everybody to run for cover. "Why am I trying to explain this to you? And since when do bullets richochet off of wood?"

Willow held her hand out, while some of the ricocheting bullets had disappeared, some of them still got past.

"I think for the safety of everybody out here," Faith said with great hesitation, "maybe we should give in and let him the hell in?"

"I…" the Doctor frowned at the idea, but it would possibly get him to stop firing.

"She has Dawn and Rose to protect her," Buffy said as she crawled under the jeep, "and we can follow in at a safe distance, besides I don't think Col. Decker's going to be too happy about him misusing government properties."

"OK," the Doctor agreed, as he pulled the TARDIS key out of his pocket, "hey up there!"

"What?" Clark paused firing long enough to listen.

"I'll let you inside, he waved the key in the air, "but I can't guarantee that you'll be able to see her. There are a lot of places to hide in there."

"Fine," he released his grip on the machine gun.

"Ok," Col Decker was a tall stocky man with a cigar permanently attached to his lips, "move in and arrest that man!"

Immediately soldiers stormed the truck to grab at Clark, but he was a little too quick for them, and he leaped off of the back and snatched the key out of the Doctor's hand and flung the door open and went through.

"Follow him and fire on sight!"

"NO!" Both Buffy and the Doctor said in unison.

"We have wounded in there," Buffy added.

"Besides, certain weapons won't work in there," the Doctor added, "let us go after him,"

"If you're not out of there in five minutes with him, we're coming in,"

"Agreed," at that the Doctor and Buffy moved into the TARDIS.

Dawn, Chloe & Rose all moved through the TARDIS with great haste, once they had gone through the main console room, Chloe had allowed for them to release her from their cloaking embrace.

"Care to talk about it?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said, "usually when something like that happens, it's good to talk about it,"

"You don't know what it's like to be raped, especially when it's someone you should have some level of love and respect for,"

"Yes," Dawn said, "I do,"

Rose looked at Dawn.

"Ok, I wasn't raped, but Buffy was by her boyfriend, and while the situation may have been a little bit different, she still managed to forgive him, and they even put it behind them."

"No," Chloe said, "I'm familiar with that incident, what Spike did to Buffy was nothing compared to what my father did to me,"

"Oh," Dawn said, "I'm so sorry,"

"Besides, we're talking about repeatedly, several times, the whole nine yards, even thought he got me pregnant. While I was horrified, he was so proud."

"What happened to…" Dawn paused, "What happened to the child?"

"Thank god it was a false pregnancy, or whatever the hell you call it,"

"How old were you when you had the false pregnancy thingy?" Dawn inquired.

"16, but that's not the worse of it, after the failed pregnancy, my father tried to get me pregnant again."

"W--, why didn't you try to stop him?" Rose asked.

"I tried, but every time I would say no, he would turn it around, by saying that what I'm supposed to say, and what I want are two different things."

"That bastard," Dawn said.

"Well, he won't be able to get to you in here," Rose said as she turned to face the wall, there was no doorway there, just a wall, "unless he knows what he is looking for,"

"You sure," Chloe asked.

"Yeah," Rose passed through the wall, "come on!"

Rose lead Chloe through the wall, "you'll be safe with us,"

"We promise," Dawn said.

After everybody was safely inside room, behind the cloaking wall, Dawn raised the crossbow and made sure the shaft was in place.

"Chloe, honey where are you?" Clark asked as he passed through the corridors, oblivious to the fact that he had crossed through the dimensional gateway that separated the inside of the TARDIS from the outside world.

"You won't be able to find her," the Doctor said, as he followed a short distance behind him, he looked to see who was with him, there was Buffy and Faith, and he was glad that Col. Decker hadn't followed.

"Oh, don't worry, she's done this hide and go seek thing with me before, I know how her mind works, probably trying to hide out in plain sight,"

"You are really desperate for an ass kicking, aren't you?" Faith asked. "While I'm sure, Col Decker's guns won't fire off in here, I'm sure a fist flying through the air won't be stopped,"

"Give it up and come outside," the Doctor said.

"NO!" He turned around and pulled out a gun, he fired it.

"Doctor!" Buffy called out.

The bullet cut through the air and headed straight towards the Doctor's chest, the TARDIS fazed him out for a microsecond and the bullet passed through him as if he were not there. Which, in effect, he was not.

"Wow!" Faith said. "Now was that cool or what?"

"Way cool."

"Do it again!" Faith said as she stood in front of the gun. "Go on, fire the damn gun!" She spun around with a roundhouse kick that landed square in his chest, he flew backwards and landed against the wall, the gun dropped to the floor.

Buffy quickly kicked the gun into a cavity between the catwalk and the console.

"Wow!" The Doctor said, the combined actions of the two girls had transpired in less than two seconds.

"So," Faith said, "we can do this the easy way, and we can simply take you outside and hand you over to Col. Decker, or we can do this the hard way, where I get really, really pissed off for having to chase you around for any amount of time."

"ARRRUGH!" He mustered up all of the strength he could and shoved Faith against the wall and ran off down the corridors. "There are things about Chloe that you do not understand!"

"Well, explain them!"

"I cant," Clark called back.

"Something tells me that this Clark guy is NOT a mild mannered reporter," Buffy said as she went after him.

"Do you have a cell phone?" The Doctor asked.

"Uh, yeah, but I don't think now's the time to be making any phone calls," Buffy reluctantly stopped and pulled out her cell phone.

"Yes," the Doctor said as he took the cell phone , "it is."

"Besides, I doubt if you'll be able to get any service, with the local switching station out of commission," Faith pointed out.

"Don't you worry about that," the Doctor typed in a special code, then Rose's cell phone.

Rose, Dawn and Chloe all stood in the middle of the room, when Rose's cell phone rang. She looked at the number, she didn't recognize it, so she didn't answer it.

"You going to get that?" Dawn asked.

"Don't recognize the number," Rose said.

"That's Buffy's number," Dawn said as she took the phone, before the ringing gave away their position, "Hello, Buffy?"

"Dawn," Buffy said as she snatched the phone out of the Doctor's hand, "he got past us, do what you must to stop him or prevent him from getting to Chloe. I don't care what you have to do."

"You sure?"

"Do what you must to keep him from setting his sights on Chloe,"

"OK," Dawn said.

"Keep the channel open," The Doctor said into the phone.

"OK," Dawn said, as she turned to Rose. "That wall, if somebody presses against it, will it hide their presence?"

"I dunno," Rose said, "never tried it."

"YES!" The Doctor's voice came over the phone, "Well, to a degree."

"Well give it a try," she said as she gently pushed Chloe against the wall, she turned invisible, but only slightly.

"If you know where to look for her, you can still see her outline," Rose said unsure of how it would actually work out.

"Oh, no." Dawn said in a mouse like squeal.

Clark followed his instincts through the winding corridors of the TARDIS, Chloe had come this way, he could tell, the mild scent of her cheap perfume was giving off a trail. Then it stopped abruptly. There were no doors, no other way for them to go, the corridor had come to an abrupt end he studied the wall, there seemed to be something strange about it; like it wasn't really there.

Buffy, the Doctor and Rose were still several corridors behind Clark. "Come on, I know of a shortcut to the room that will get us there quicker," the Doctor said.

"We'll follow you," Buffy said.

"Hey B, do you think that Dawnie's going to do something incredibly crazy?" Faith asked.

"For once in in my life, I hope that Dawn does something jaw dropping crazy,"

"I think he's right outside," Rose said in a whisper.

"I know," Dawn whispered back, "if he figures out how to get through that wall, he's going to see her, no matter what."

"So we're going to need to do something to divert his attention from her a whole lot,"

"I have a crazy idea, but it just might work,"

"What?"

"Strip down to your underwear,"

"WHAT?" Rose asked.

"And kiss me, a full body contact, sloppy wet kiss."

"Whoa!" Rose protested. "You're not...gay are you?"

"God no," Dawn said. "Unless we do something crazy like that, as soon as he figures out how to get through that wall, he's going to be able to see her outline, so unless we divert his attention from her in some extreme way…"

"Oh," Rose said, as she began to remove her clothes, "the Doctor is so going to kill me!"

"You two kind of an item or something?" Dawn too began to remove her clothes down to her undergarments.

Rose nodded, then shook her head.

"Whichever way, I think he'll understand, given the situation,"

"I hope so!" Rose said as she pulled Dawn's body into hers.

A tear streamed down Dawn's cheek, forget the Doctor killing Rose, Buffy was going to kill her, she knew it, but as her lips gently pushed against Rose's, it all didn't seem to matter, as she looked up still deep in her kiss with Rose, she saw Clark coming through the door.


End file.
